Chapter 14

When Grace came to on the street outside their house, there were three people standing over her, and two policemen. The old man she had almost pulled down with her had gone to a phone booth and dialed 911, but she was conscious again by the time they came, and she was sitting on the sidewalk. She was embarrassed more than hurt, and still too dizzy to get up.

“What happened here?” the first policeman asked amiably. He was a big friendly man, and he had keen eyes as he took in the situation. She wasn't drunk or on drugs, from what he could see, and she was very pretty and well dressed. “Would you like us to call an ambulance for you? Or your doctor?”

“No, really, I'm fine,” she said, getting up. “I don't know what happened. I just got light-headed.” She had skipped breakfast that day, but she'd been feeling fine.

“You really should go to a doctor, ma'am. We'll be happy to take you to New York Hospital. It's straight down the street here,” he said kindly.

“Really. I'm fine. I live right here.” She pointed at the town house only a few feet away from them. She had almost made it. And she thanked the old man and apologized for almost knocking him down. He patted her hand and told her to have a nap and eat a good lunch, and then the policemen escorted her into her house, and looked around at the attractive surroundings.

“Do you want us to call anyone? Your husband? A friend? A neighbor?”

“No … I …” The phone interrupted them, and she picked it up as they stood in the hallway. It was Charles.

“What did he say?”

“I'm fine,” she said sheepishly, except for the fact that she had just keeled over on the sidewalk.

“Do you want us to stay for a few minutes?” the policeman in charge asked and she shook her head.

“Who was that? Is someone there?” She was afraid to tell him what had happened.

“It's nothing, I just … the doctor said I'm in great shape. And …”

“Who was that talking to you?” He had a sixth sense about her, and he knew something was wrong as he listened.

“It's a policeman, Charles,” she sighed, feeling foolish, but also feeling sick again, and the policeman watched her turn green and then swoon again as he caught her with one arm. She had no idea what was happening, but she felt awful. She actually felt too sick to talk to him, as she set down the phone, and sat down on the floor and put her head down between her knees. One of the policemen went to get a glass of water for her, and the other picked up the phone where she'd left it on the floor beside her.

“Hello? Hello? What's going on there?” Charles was frantic.

“This is Officer Mason. Who is this?” he said calmly, as Grace looked up at him in helpless mortification.

“My name is Charles Mackenzie and that's my wife there with you. What's wrong?”

“She's fine, sir. She had a little problem … she passed out just outside your house. We brought her inside, and I think she's feeling a little woozy again. Probably stomach flu, there's a lot of it going around.”

“Is she all right?” Charles looked ghastly, as he stood up and grabbed his coat while he was still talking to the officer at his house.

“I think she's fine. She didn't want to go to the hospital. We asked her.”

“Never mind that. Can you take her to Lenox Hill?”

“We'd be glad to.”

“I'll meet you there in ten minutes.”

The policeman looked down at her with a smile after he hung up. “Your husband wants us to take you to Lenox Hill, Mrs. Mackenzie.”

“I don't want to go.” She sounded like a child and he smiled at her.

“He was pretty definite about it. He's going to meet you there.”

“I'm okay. Really.”

“I'm sure you are. But it doesn't hurt to get it checked out. There's a lot of nasty bugs around. A woman passed out at Bloomingdale's yesterday with that Hong Kong flu. You been sick long?” he asked while he helped her toward the door as they chatted, and his partner joined them.

“Really, I'm fine,” she said, as the police locked her door and put her in the squad car. And then suddenly she realized what it must have looked like, as though she were being arrested. It would have seemed funny to her except that suddenly it reminded her of the night she had killed her father, and by the time they got to Lenox Hill, she was having an asthma attack, the first she'd had in two years. And she wasn't even carrying her inhaler. She had gotten so confident, she left it home most of the time now.

They took her inside, and she explained to the nurse in the emergency room about her asthma, and they were quick to bring her an inhaler. But by the time Charles arrived, she was still deathly pale from the asthma and the medication, and her hands were shaking.

“What, happened?” He looked horrified, and she spoke in an undertone.

“The police car made me nervous.”

“That's why you fainted?” He looked confused by what was happening, and she shook her head.

“That's why I have asthma.”

“But why did you faint?” ‘I don't know that.’

The policemen left them then, and it was another hour before they could be seen by one of the emergency room doctors. And she was much better by then, her breathing was almost normal, and she was no longer dizzy. He had brought her some chicken soup from a machine, and some candy and a sandwich. Her appetite was good, she explained to the doctor who examined her.

“Excellent,” Charles confirmed.

The doctor checked her over carefully, and then asked a pointed question. He said it was probably the flu, but he had one other idea. “Gould you be pregnant?”

“I don't think so.” She hadn't used birth control since Abby was born, and she was going to be six in July. And Grace had never gotten pregnant again. “I doubt it”

“Are you on the pill?” She shook her head. “Then why not? Any reason?” He glanced at Charles.

“I just don't think so,” Grace said firmly. She would have loved another child, but she just didn't think she could get pregnant. After six years, why would she?

“I think you are,” Charles smiled slowly at her. He'd never even thought of it, but she had all the symptoms. “Could you check?” he asked the resident.

“You can buy a kit at the drugstore on the corner. My bet is you're right, and she isn't.” He smiled at Grace. “I think maybe you have denial. You've got pretty much all the symptoms. Nausea, dizziness, increased appetite, fatigue, sleepiness, you feel bloated, and you missed your last period, which you think was from nerves. Professionally speaking, I don't. My guess is you're having a baby. I can call our o.b./gyn to check it out if you want, but it's just as easy to buy the kit and call your own doctor.”

“Thank you,” she said, looking stunned. She hadn't even thought of it. She had hoped for another baby for so long, and then finally given it up, and convinced herself it would never happen.

They went to the corner and bought the kit, and took a cab home, and Charles held her close to him, grateful that nothing terrible had happened. When the policeman had answered his phone, he had panicked, and feared the worst.

She did all the steps in the kit, and they waited precisely five minutes, using Charles's stopwatch, and she was smiling as they waited for it. They were both convinced now that she was pregnant, and she was.

“When do you suppose it happened?” she asked, looking stunned. She still couldn't believe it.

“I’ ll bet right after we had dinner at the White House,” Charles laughed, and kissed her.

And he was right. She went to her obstetrician the next day, and the baby was due in late September. Charles made a few noises about being an old man when it was born. He would be fifty-one, but Grace wouldn't listen to his complaints about being “old.”

“You're just a kid,” she grinned. They were both excited and happy. And when the baby came, he was a beautiful little boy who looked like both of them, except he had pale blond hair, which they insisted was nowhere in their families. He was an exquisite child, and he looked almost Swedish. They named him Matthew, and the children fell in love with him the moment they saw him. Abby walked around holding him all the time and called him “her baby.”

But with three children, their town house on Sixty-ninth began to burst at the seams, and that winter they sold it and bought a house in Greenwich. It was a pretty white house with a picket fence, and a huge backyard. And Charles bought a big chocolate Labrador for the children. It was the perfect life.

“Help Kids!” continued to thrive, and Grace went into town twice a week to check on things, but she had hired someone else to run the office, and she opened a smaller office in Connecticut, where she spent her mornings. Most of the time she took the baby with her in his stroller.

It was a comfortable life for them in Connecticut. The kids loved their new school. Abigail and Andrew were in first and second grades. And it was the following summer when Charles heard from Roger Marshall, his old partner who was now in Congress.

Roger wanted Charles to think about getting into politics, there was a very interesting seat in Connecticut coming up the following year, when a senior congressman finally retired. Charles couldn't imagine pursuing it, he was so busy at the firm, and he enjoyed his work. Running for Congress, if he won, would mean moving to Washington, at least some of the time, and that would be hard on Grace and the children. And political campaigns were costly and exhausting. They had lunch and talked about it, and Charles turned him down. But when the junior congressman from his district had a heart attack and died later that year, Roger called again, and this time Grace surprised Charles by pressing him to think about it.